


What's In a Name?

by ktdani



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 06:02:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7348021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ktdani/pseuds/ktdani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She is not a Baratheon, or a Martell, or a Lannister. She is not a stag, or a sun, or a lion. She is simply… Myrcella."</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's In a Name?

**_Myrcella Baratheon_ **

Myrcella Baratheon is a young girl in dresses too fancy and too heavy for her to stand properly. With the words of her septa in her head, she stands tall despite the heavy weight. Within a few years, by the age of seven, she manages to hold the dresses well. She manages to run and play with Tommen, while also being able to be the princess her mother and father demand to see.

Everyone tells her that she has the world at her feet. She is the combination of two great houses– Baratheon and Lannister. With the beauty of her mother and the strength of her father, she is sure to be a force of nature. “The princess was braver than her brother, and brighter and more confident as well. Her wits were quicker, her courtesies more polished. Nothing daunted her, not even Joffrey,” she hears people say. She wears it as a badge of honor.

Myrcella Baratheon is a stag. She lacks the black hair, blue eyes, and strong stature, but her father’s traits have rubbed off on her. Her septa yells at her for having a mercurial temper, saying it is not fit for a princess, yet she can see the slight smile of her father each time she goes on a tirade. _Ours is the fury,_ she tells herself. _They fear my father’s fury and they will fear mine. I will be strong._

**_Myrcella Martell_ **

She says it in the mirror every night for a month before she leaves for Dorne, and she says it every night until she is declared a bastard. After that, it is too hurtful to pretend.

The name holds hope. Hope that she will be safe and secure, despite the whispers of trouble in King’s Landing and a war threatening to spill throughout the kingdoms. Hope that she will be happy in the Dornish heat. The name holds promise. It promises a comfortable life, her and her husband and their children. She imagines them having three, just like her family and just like Trystane’s. Two boys and a girl. Their names she has not decided. Yet they will be Martells, and that is all that matters.

Trystane and her will watch their children run around with their dark eyes and hair, with that beautiful olive skin. Myrcella will be a stark contrast to her husband and children, but she will belong. They will burn as bright as the sun, with their splendor spoken of throughout the land. If they are angered, then those who angered them will know the true nature of the sun. It can burn bright, but it will also burn. _Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken._ Her children will be taught to never lose the ground below their feet. They will never be subject to the tumultuous nature of Westeros as they will be Dornish, and the Dornish always survive. 

**_Myrcella Lannister_ **

The whispers, however, give her another name. She bears the name of her mother and trueborn father– Lannister. Now when she stands in the mirror, she despises her golden hair and green eyes. She should have known long ago that it would betray her. 

Now more than ever, she despises the name Lannister. They have given her nothing except betrayal. They have brought terror into her world and hurt innocents, including herself. She did not want the arrogant pride of Tywin Lannister, the avarice of Jaime, or the lust for power of Cersei.

 _You are a lioness,_  her mother used to whisper to her. _You are not a stag. Stags are weak, they only have tempers, there is nothing honorable in that. A lion… a lion is brave and strong_. But the lions only inspired fear in the hearts of villagers. _I will not be a lion and they will not hear me roar._

**_Myrcella Waters_ **

Months later, she chooses the name Myrcella Waters. When she declares this to Trystane and Doran, she can see their eyes roll and their fists clench. With this name, she is officially a bastard. If she had kept her other names, she would have been something, would have had something to redeem her. There was some semblance of hope for her future.

But when she tears off the obligations of a family, she feels free. She is not a Baratheon, or a Martell, or a Lannister. She is not a stag, or a sun, or a lion. She is simply… Myrcella. True, she does not quite know who Myrcella Waters is, but she is eager to discover it herself.


End file.
